formicaant

This is my favourite hillfort of the Durotriges in Dorset , probably because I grew up within a 100 yards of it and have been there hundreds of times . It was very nearly destroyed in the mid victorian era to make way for a railway to Bath , thank god common sense prevailed and the railway runs under it’s northern end in a tunnel. Dr Stukeley included it his itinerarium curiesum and gave the alternative name of Pomery.

This medium sized Durotrigian hillfort just looks like a large copse even from a few feet away.However once inside the entrance, it is a sophisticated multiple ditch and banked enclosure.It has a high a c.30ft. bank all the way around its centre, on its western edge there is a c.60ft. terrace with a low earth bank which drops steeply into the valley below.The folly is a magnficent piece of 18th. c. pointlessness,but as this fort is so heavily wooded it’s impact is limited.

This snake like ditch and bank marks the border of Durotrigian territory from that of their tribal neighbours the Belgae. It can be traced for c. 5 km. on O.S. Explorer 118. It can be followed on foot for most of its length. To the west of it can be seen a long barrow,about 50m. in length, this is itself only about 50m. south of the end of the Dorset Cursus. It is reckoned pre-Roman in origin, re-built and strengthened after the Romans left. There is what appears to be a very well preserved earthwork at right angles to it on the eastern side, don’t be fooled it’s a 20th century rifle range.